Pokój w Europie a Pokojowa Nagroda Nobla
Peace in Europe and the Nobel Peace Prize

Summary/Abstract: In January 2013 many observers were surprised by the decision of the Norwegian committee to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union. The news was even followed by some public protests, voiced also by some former Nobel prize winners. Still other commentators were critical of the badly chosen timing – amidst the European Union’s worst economic and political crisis it ever experienced and accompanied by a dramatic drop in public confidence and support in member states. More importantly, the awardee could boast no recent convincing peace achievements on the international scene. More puzzling were several claims advanced by the Norwegian committee in order to explain and to justify its controversial decision. The EU has, according to the committee, for more than “six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”. Three EU leaders made even more extraordinary statements claiming that the EU had finally solved the problem of war on our continent. Were these bold affirmations supported by historical facts?

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